Often times during calls, and especially during conference calls, some participants request to have the communication session recorded. Reasons for having a communication session recorded are many but may include that the requesting participant would like to review the conversation at a later time. Problems arise, however, if one or more other participants have objections to the conversation being recorded. In some countries recording a conversation without all of the participant's permission is illegal. Therefore, the requesting user cannot have the communication session recorded and will have to rely on handwritten notes or memory to recall the communication session.
While on a call users often want to take notes even if the communication session is being recorded. A user's notes often reflect their feelings, impressions, or reminders related to the communication session. Often times participants cannot record notes on a piece of paper and keep up with a communication session. It may be even more difficult to take notes if no piece of paper is available. Furthermore, any handwritten notes cannot be easily correlated to a particular point in the communication session to give the notes some sort of context. Accordingly handwritten notes tend to prove somewhat useless and cumbersome.
Another option to a communication session participant is to employ a Dictaphone to record their notes in an audio format. An advantage offered by the Dictaphone is that notes can be taken more quickly thereby allowing the participant to return to the conversation more quickly. However, the drawbacks of relying on a Dictaphone to take notes during a communication session are numerous. First of all, the participant must have a Dictaphone handy during the communication session. This is rarely the case. Second, the participant has to take precautions to ensure that the private memo being recorded to the Dictaphone is not transmitted as a part of the communication session, thereby interrupting the communication session. To accomplish this, the participant will either have to walk away from the communication device being used to participate in the communication session or hit the mute button on the communication device. Then, when the participant is done recording the audio memo, the participant has to remember to hit the mute button again to allow him/her to engage in the communication session.
One attempted solution to this problem is provided by DialDictate and includes the use of a PC based application that is allowed to connect with a telephonic communication device. DialDictate is an application that can be loaded onto a PC and when a participant makes a phone call using the PC, the application can record the full conversation between all participants. Unfortunately, DialDictate does not provide the ability to mute an outgoing stream during memo taking. Rather, memos can only be created using DialDictate in a very cumbersome way. A user would have to (1) put the other caller on hold, (2) make a call to DialDictate, (3) record a memo, (4) hang up to DialDictate, and (5) take the original caller off hold. Therefore, a participant would not be able to continue listening to a conversation if he/she were to break away and create a memo.